If coaching Special Olympics teams for 17 years and working at the Kearney Center homeless shelter has taught Bill Schack anything, it is that opportunities to help others abound in Tallahassee.

That need and his own sense of community service is what has driven Schack, a 50-year-old New Jersey native who spent a lifetime in restaurant management, to run for the Tallahassee City Commission for the first time.

“I thought that’s what the City Commission is supposed to do,” Schack said, “improve people’s lives.”

Schack enrolled at Florida State University hoping to get on the golf team. Even though he didn’t make the cut, Schack stayed in Tallahassee and made it his home — except for a two-year stint in Gainesville.

He became the youngest general manager in the Applebee’s organization, opening restaurants throughout the Southeast, including in Dothan and Panama City.

After working for Qdoba’s Mexican Grill and Chili’s, Schack ran cafeterias in state buildings, where he picked up his bulk cooking skills.

When Keith Baxter was designing the kitchen at the Kearney Center, he recommended Schack for the job.

“It’s quite a challenge,” Schack said. “It’s the biggest kitchen I have ever worked in.”

The Kearney Center is fortunate because of all the community support it gets, Schack said. The center gets food donations from private organizations, churches, grocery stores and nonprofits.

One of those organizations, America’s Second Harvest of the Big Bend, is run by Rick Minor, one of Schack’s rivals for the City Commission Seat 3 currently held by Nancy Miller. Miller said she is not seeking a third term.

The other candidate, Jeremy Matlow, also is in the food business. He’s co-founder of Gaines Street Pies, Midtown Pies and Northtown Pies, as well as manager of the Wilbury and Warhorse Whiskey Bar.

Schack’s interest in local government was sparked when during his first meeting as a member of the Killearn Homeowners Association, country club owner Barton Tuck proposed selling off the north nine-hole golf course to developers.

His proposal triggered a lawsuit to block a zoning request to allow residential-commercial development. Two years of negotiations were finally resolved last April when the HOA reversed itself on the zoning change. In return, Tuck promised to drive the profits from selling the Narrows into renovating the Killearn Country Club and operate it for another 50 years.

Deals like that, as well as the Community Redevelopment Agency’s decision to give lobbyist Adam Corey $2 million to help build the Edison Restaurant, helped shape Schack’s view of city politics and how taxpayer money should be spent.

“I think the city should be more involved in supporting community nonprofits,” he said, advocating for directing more public money to local nonprofits. “They are the top employer in the city. And a lot of those organizations help people live better lives.”

Besides his involvement with the Kearney Center and Special Olympics, Schack is a past board member of WAVE, Widening Adult Vital Experiences Life skills. He also serves on the board of Florida State University Schools, and is a member of Capital Tiger Bay Club and the Network of Entrepreneurs and Business Advocates.

Schack also said it’s time to stop talking and doing something about Tallahassee’s crime rate, which is the highest in the state for the third year running. He asked why police officers don’t have the body cameras even though the funding for them has been approved, and said it’s time to fill the 40 unfilled positions.

He also wants to take some of the city’s $90 million reserve fund and return it to the taxpayers or use the money for community projects.

“We can’t continue to put the burden on the taxpayers,” he said.

And it’s time to write some stronger ethics rules. “It can’t come from the people at the top making the rules,” he said. “It needs to be independent.”

The city’s independent ethics board was created after overwhelmingly supported by voters in 2014 but its critics have maintained its rules are weak and have not been enforced. The board itself has asked the City Commission to adopt stronger rules.

City ethics policies need to be strengthened so employees aren’t afraid to come forward, he said.

“The culture up top seems to be one of helping each other out and covering for each other,” Schack said.

He mentioned the recent forced resignation of City Manager Rick Fernandez as an illustration of how the City Commission and City Attorney seemingly protected Fernandez rather than fire him immediately overtaking college football tickets from a lobbyist.

Schack has been told by everyone he is not going to win, but he hopes to convince people to vote for him based on the content of his character and his community and business involvement.

Although the race is nonpartisan, Schack is a lifelong Republican. He hopes that won’t make a difference in the heavily Democratic Tallahassee.

“You don’t need an R or D next to your name to know Tallahassee needs change,” Schack said.

Correction: A previous version of this story said Schack is a current member of the WAVE board of directors. He resigned his position last February.

Contact Schweers at jschweers@tallahassee.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeffschweers.